Many mobile devices (e.g., smart phones, tablets) use native applications, or apps, to access various web-based services. For example, various social media, photo-sharing, streaming video, and other web-based services develop their own applications for mobile device operating systems. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of such a web-based service entity 100, to which both a mobile device 105 and a laptop computer 110 connect through the Internet 115 (while laptops are, of course, mobile, this document uses mobile device to primarily refer to devices such as smart phones and tablets that run on mobile operating systems).
As shown in FIG. 1, in some cases these devices may connect to different servers provided by the web-based service entity 100 (the mobile device 105 connecting through a native application to the mobile app server 120 and the laptop computer connecting through a web browser to the web server 125). The web-based entity stores passwords and other user data for the users of these devices, which is used by both the web server and the mobile app server. However, the user has to login to the entity separately on the mobile device 105 and the laptop 110, as well as for any other devices. In addition, the user may access the web server via a web browser on the mobile device, and would have to log in separately from the application login. This requires the user to remember and enter all of their passwords each time they acquire a new device.